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Japanese wild pigs tested for radioactivity

ELIZABETH JACKSON: While more than 150,000 people were forced to flee Fukushima after the tsunami and subsequent nuclear accident, authorities have found that some new, unwanted residents have moved into the fall-out zone.

Wild pigs, some weighing more than 100 kilograms, are flourishing in the nuclear evacuation zone.

Our North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy headed out with one hunting party in the bushland of Fukushima.

MARK WILLACY: In a cedar forest just 30 kilometres from the shattered Fukushima nuclear reactors, Shigenori Monma and his band of hunters are setting yet another pig trap.

(Trap springs)

After a quick test, it's off to check the other traps and snares they set a few days ago.

Their quarry is one of the wiliest beasts in these forests, and also one of the most radioactive.

(Shigenori Monma speaking)

"We are trying to catch wild boars", says Shigenori Monma, as he slings his 12-gauge shotgun over his shoulder.

"Some of them are contaminated with radiation 500 times the government's safety limit. So the Fukushima government has asked us to get rid of them and to send in samples for radiation testing", he says.

We drive from trap to trap, but these pigs aren't known for their cunning for nothing, after two hours all we've found is a few tantalising tracks.

At one snare, we come across Masakatsu Wada, one of the Fukushima officials in charge of the wild pig eradication program.

(Masakatsu Wada speaking)

"Because of the accident at the nuclear plant, the numbers of wild boars has exploded", he tells me.

"Their habitat is widening dramatically. They're damaging crops and property, and they're even a danger to people", he says.

After several fruitless hours, Shigenori Monma and his posse of pig hunters have snared a boar.

The pig seems to know what's at stake here, charging the group and trying to free himself of the snare around his back leg.

This 30 kilogram male has survived and thrived in this nuclear fallout zone, but now his luck has run out.

(Gunshot)

This wild pig will now be cut up and analysed for radioactive contamination. A fact that makes Shigenori Monma somewhat melancholy.

(Shigenori Monma speaking)

"Before I used to love barbecued boar, but now because of the contamination I can't even have wild pig hot pot", he tells me. "So I am very discouraged", he says.

Not as discouraged as this ill-fated Fukushima hog, now on its way to the lab.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.